Now in its 20th year, the Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey 2018 is the largest IT leadership survey in the world, with just under 4,000 responses from CIOs and technology executives across 84 countries.

In this year’s survey, we see the CIO role continue to change as organizations themselves are forced to transform. Traditional focus areas like data privacy and security are more important than ever but in order to remain competitive, IT leaders must turn the risks associated with utilizing customer data into enablers for driving new revenue growth. Indeed the report shows that those managing the balance most effectively, with the customer at the heart of their digital strategy, are significantly more profitable.

While making a success of digital is proving tough, and hampered by an ongoing skills shortage, successful IT leaders are proving resilient and adaptable, and the CIO remains vital in helping their organization to navigate a digital future.

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• Customer-centric organizations are 38 percent more likely to report greater profitability than ones that are not
  
• Making a success of digital is proving complex with almost eight in ten CIOs (78 percent) feeling that their digital strategy is only moderately effective or worse
• CDOs are proving their worth. Organizations with a CDO, either in a dedicated or acting role, are over twice as likely to have a clear and pervasive digital strategy than those without one (44 percent versus 21 percent)
• Almost a quarter (23 percent) more respondents than in 2017 are prioritizing improvements in cyber security as cyber-crime threats reach an all-time high, however only a fifth feel well prepared for a cyber attack
• Security and resilience skills see the biggest jump in skills shortages (increasing 25 percent year-on-year), but big data and analytics remains the number one skill in short supply for the fourth year in a row
• Female IT leadership continues on a slow upward trend, this year reaching 12 percent (up from 10 percent last year) and women represent just one in five on technology teams
• Investment in shadow IT continues to grow, with 44 percent of organizations now having at least 10 percent of their IT spend outside the control of the CIO. Embracing this trend may be key to success
• Cloud investment continues to grow with 70 percent reporting significant or moderate spend, closely followed by mobile solutions (57 percent). Investment in newer digital technologies is increasing but still relatively small in comparison
  

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View the CIO Survey Infographic